Local teams hold summer camps

Starting Monday morning, summer camps for football, basketball and soccer were seen in and around Baldwin High School.

The BHS football, girls basketball and soccer coaches are all putting on their summer camps this week. The Baldwin Junior High School and youth football camps are also going on this week during the evenings.

"This is what we've been waiting for," said Mike Berg, BHS football coach. "We've been working hard in the offseason to get ready for camps. We're excited about what we see. It's a lot of young guys, great technique and a desire to win. We can't ask for anything more than that."

BHS girls' basketball coach Bob Martin said he enjoys being out on the court with the team again.

"I love coaching basketball and it's fun to get back out on the floor," Martin said. "I could do this all summer."

Gus Wegner, BHS soccer coach, thought the camp is going well for being the first ever.

"It was still warm, but they did pretty good," Wegner said. "We wanted to let everybody know soccer is here. It is also to let the kids know they have to get in shape."

Wegner and assistant coach David Theis are teaching the players about passing, defense, heading and communication during the three days of camp.

"The camp is really nice, because this way we can plan the practices, Wegner said. "This gives us an idea of what needs help and where to focus."

Martin will also be entering his first year as head coach of his team. He is impressed with the players at the camp so far.

"It's going really well so far," Martin said. "I think the girls are really working hard. We're getting up and down the floor quite a bit. We've got a lot of girls that can play and have some experience."

About 20 girls have shown up for camp, but only four freshmen. Martin said he is teaching the team mostly the basics.

"We're emphasizing fundamentals and we're working a lot on offensive skills," Martin said. "We're trying to put in our system a bit. It's mostly just individual skills. It's the first part of our evaluation process."

It will also be the first year as head coach for Tom Harman, who takes over the BJHS football team. Harman has seen more players at his camp than he expected, and he likes the team so far.

"These guys are a good group," Harman said. "The kids have been really enthusiastic. For junior high players, they are doing a really good job. I'm impressed."

The BJHS camp was moved inside Tuesday because of the amount of rain that fell during the day.

"There were a few things that we couldn't do inside, but we needed the rain," Harman said.

One coach that is familiar to summer camps is Berg. He is running the BHS camp from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. then he helps run the youth camp from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Berg is helping BHS senior John Brown run the youth camp. Brown is running the youth camp for his senior project.

"Seeing Austin (Inzer) have so much success with it, I approached coach Berg about it and he was gracious to let me do it," Brown said. "It's really nice for the youth to see their high school stars going out there and helping them out. It's coach Berg continuing to build that tradition all the way up."

The youth camp also had to move inside Tuesday night because of the rain. Brown was still happy with the turnout for the first night.

"It was better than I expected, but it was disappointing to have it inside because there wasn't enough room," Brown said. "We had a lot of fun and we will keep it going."

Berg is also liking the numbers at the BHS camp.

"We're missing a few guys, because some guys are on vacation and a couple are in North Dakota for wrestling," Berg said. "We have about 50 and we were expecting about 60 or 70, so we have most of our guys."

The BHS and youth players are all learning the same things at camp.

"We are learning our offensive sets, what our defense is going to be and a lot of technique," Berg said. "It's all the basics, so when football starts we can teach them that but they will have the basics down."

Berg enjoys the number of children that show up for the youth camp every year.

"I love the youth camp," Berg said. "Every year I look forward to having 30 or 40 kids and I have 60. It just shows the excitement the kids have and how Baldwin football is growing in the community."